Notholaena rigidaDavenp. 1891

Stiff Cloakfern

Introduction

Notholaena rigida is a Mexican endemic with an oddly disjunct distribution. Plants of extreme northeastern Mexico (Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon) are slightly larger than those of Chiapas, in extreme southern Mexico; the species is not known to occur elsewhere. Plants of the two areas differ in other ways (northern individuals have slightly asymmetrical pinnae and white farina, whereas southern individuals have symmetrical pinnae and lack farina; Mickel and Smith, 2004). Further study is needed.

This species is anomalous as a member of core Notholaena I in that it lacks hairs and scales on the leaves. Nonetheless, plastid DNA data (from one of the northern individuals) place it firmly nested in that clade, close to N. aschenborniana, of all species (N. aschenborniana is densely hairy and scaly; Rothfels et al., 2008). It does resemble the other members of that clade, however, in its linear leaf blades.

Characteristics

The absence of hairs and scales on the leaves distinguish this species from most other linear-leaved farinose taxa. It differs from N. lemmonii by its leaf stalk (smooth rather than grooved) and from N. meridionalis by range (in Oaxaca, where the two species could potentially overlap, N. rigida is nonfarinose) and by the presence, on N. meridionalis, of tiny hairs on the leaf upper surfaces.

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Notholaena rigidaDavenp. 1891. Stiff Cloakfern.
Authored by
Carl Rothfels.
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